Hi-Riders (1978)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

HI-RIDERS is one of those all-out speed flicks that were made during the 1970s to celebrate fast-moving vehicles and much vehicular mayhem. This one's about teen drag racing, so kind of an update on the old biker movie sub-genre, as it follows a young couple who join a drag racing gang and contend with all the usual trouble from rivals and the law.Unfortunately, this is one of the worst of its type, a truly pitiful film in every respect. It doesn't help that the quality of the print in existence is extremely sub-standard. The direction of the drag racing scenes, of which there are many, is awful, and they look like stock footage. In fact, I'm surprised they're so mishandled when director Greydon Clark went on to make the above average sci-fi chiller WITHOUT WARNING.The cast is eminently forgettable and the characters one-dimensional. A few weary-looking faces show up in supporting roles (Mel Ferrer, Ralph Meeker, and Neville Brand) but fail to register. The plotting is lifeless and dull, and the running time seems to drag on interminably until the blessed moment when the credits finally roll.

This flick is notorious for a few reasons. It do contain classic American muscle cars like a Firebird, Dodge Charger and a Mercury Cougar. There are more to see like a Ford Mustang but the 3 mentioned are the most important ones. The flick itself is a bit slow sometimes and it really starts around 45 minutes when things go wrong while racing. From there on this flick moves faster but still it's tame for today's standards. But the way it was shot is well done and it shows, Dean Cundey was camera man here and he moved further to the classic Halloween (1978). There are also a few common faces to recognise. Just watch the sheriff, Mel Ferrer and his deputy Ralph Meeker but not only that, the bartender is played by Neville Brand.But what made this flick notorious was that around the end of shooting a terrible accident occurred with Vic Rivers, the stunt man. He died while driving a truck that was meant to fly off an embankment. But Vic undershot the distance and the truck flipped and crashed near the bank of the river. Due the silt it took an hour to find him, death. But the shot was used. Worth seeing for the cars only.Gore 0/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Hi Riders was a film that disappeared off the map, from video shops for years. Then one night, it popped up in this video shop. So I rented it, and popped it in my video. I felt short changed, disappointed but I still didn't quite mind it, but the fact remained it was a pretty poor movie, unlike Greydon's Clark's sci fi horror wonder "The Return". This is just a vigilante themed story, about a group of bikers, who Hinton and his girl team up with. They crash pubs, run illegal car races, etc. The latest one has claimed the life of a bartenders son who ignored fatherly advice and died as a result, where the occupants of the other challenging car were killed too. They involved one of the bikers and a hippie town chick looking for some action that she definitely got. Consumed with vengeance, the victim's father takes the law into his own hands, killing off the bikers, one by one, which brings a retribution of war, the car crashing through house climax, sudden. This is just an action time passer, and hardly passes as a bikie movie, the chick in the blue top, the best thing about it. Just a limited film, is all.

HI-RIDERS is a little-known film, but when I finally got to see it I was not disappointed. I knew the movie would feature great car action, and it does indeed. The cars all look brilliant and the racing and chase sequences are filmed excellently. The performances range from okay to atrocious, the worst offender being Stephen McNally as bad guy Mr. Lewis. Then again, his character is genuinely unpleasant. He seeks revenge on the gang for the death of his son, which was pretty much an accident. Then again, the film is probably just trying to show that rich guys like Lewis are all scum. A bit preachy, considering our heroes drink and drive. Even so, the cars are excellent. There's a Firebird, a Dodge Charger and a Mercury Cougar all on display.Darby Hinton is good as Mark, the latest member of the Hi-Riders and so is Wm J. Beaudine as Hi-Rider leader T.J. (according to IMDb, this was the only film Beaudine ever did. If that's true, it's a shame because he's very good here}. I know Neville Brand was a big star in the 40s and 50s, so I think it's a shame that he has a part here that could have been mailed in.The ending of the film is very abrupt, though, as the surviving Hi-Riders get revenge on Mr. Lewis for killing their friends, but it just ends there. That said, HI-RIDERS is a very enjoyable picture and I'm glad to have seen it at long last. And I'm glad that a fellow IMDb user feels the same way about it as I do.